Method of and apparatus for loading a plurality of articles into a workholder

ABSTRACT

A mass of diodes having paramagnetic ends are placed and held in a magnetic field having horizontal, parallel lines of magnetic force established by a pair of upstanding, spaced, parallel magnetic walls. Pivotally attached to each of the walls is a flipper plate which is moved toward the magnetic field assuring that both ends of the diode are acted upon by the magnetic lines of force. Thereafter, the walls are moved toward each other; increasing the strength of the horizontal, parallel lines of magnetic force, and engaging and interleaving the mass of diodes.

United States Patent Inventors Jerry C. Hurst Laureldale;

Samuel E. Kurtz, Reading, Pa.

maize s Division of Ser. No. 610,675, Jan. 20, 1967, Rat: N9:

Apr. 20, 1971 Western Electric Company, Incorporated New York, N.Y.

Appl. No. Filed Patented Assignee METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR LGADING A PLURALITY OF ARTICLES INTO A WORKHOLDER 6 Claims, 1 Drawing Fig.

U.S.Cl 214/1, 193/43, 214/152 Int. Cl 365g 57/00 Field of Search 294/655;

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,080,435 12/1913 Gamper (l93/43UX) 2,581,042 1/1952 Otto l93/43X 3,120,890 2/1964 Waltz l93/43X 3,388,795 6/1968 Beroset et a1 209/73 Primary Examiner-Gerald M. Forlenza Assistant Examiner-Frank E. Werner Att0rneys-H. J. Winegar, R. P. Miller and J. L. Landis ABSTRACT: A mass of diodes having paramagnetic ends are placed and held in a magnetic field having horizontal, parallel lines of magnetic force established by a pair of upstanding, spaced, parallel magnetic walls. Pivotally attached to each of the walls is a flipper plate which is moved toward the magnetic field assuring that both ends of the diode are acted upon by the magnetic lines of force. Thereafter, the walls are moved toward each other; increasing the strength of the horizontal, parallel lines of magnetic force, and engaging and interleaving the mass of diodes.

METHOD OF ANIJI APPARATUS FOR IJOADING A I IIIIIAIITII' 01F ARTICLES INTO A WOIIIIIIOLDER BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION This application is a division of case Ser. No. 610,675, filed Jan. 20, 1967, now US. Pat. No. 3,480,165 issued on Nov. 25, 1969, is hereby incorporated by reference and this application is a divisional thereof.

The present invention contemplates a method of and an apparatus for magnetically suspending and supporting a mass of paramagnetic articles between a pair of magnets after which the articles are interleaved and aligned.

More particularly, a mass of paramagnetic articles having a center body with leads extending colinearly from each end thereof is fed into a fixture having a pair of spaced magnetic plates which establish a magnetic field having horizontal'lines of force to attract and suspend the articles in a generally horizontal manner against the magnetic plates, one at each end of the fixture. A flipper pivotally attached to each plate is moved toward the lines of force to pivot any depending ends of the article into positions along the lines of. force. Thereafter, one of the plates is moved toward the other, to interleave the articles attracted and held to either plate until the distance between the free end of the article and the adjacent magnetic plate is so small that all of the central bod.- ies of the articles are substantially aligned.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING The FIGURE is a perspective view of a magnetic fixture which may be used to effectuate the step of interleaving two separate masses of magnetically suspended articles to align the articles in accordance with the principles of the invention; this FIGURE appears as FIG. 3 in the referred patent.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION The invention herein is described in US. Pat. No. 3,480,165 issued on Nov. 25, I969. Portions of the referred patent which are of particular interest to the present invention are described in column 2, lines 63-72; column 3, lines l-57; column 4, lines 60-75; column 5, Iines l-l9; and column 6, lines 18-30.

Attention is next directed to the FIG. I which shows a fixture or magnetic bin 2I which may be used to practice the first sequence of steps of the present invention. The fixture 21 has an upstanding wall 22 slidably mounted with respect to a base 23. A wall 24 is mounted on a base 23 and is parallel to, but spaced from, the wall 22. The wall 22 is slidably movable with respect to the wall 24. by actuating a toggle device 25. The walls 22 and 24 are initially spaced apart a distance substantially greater than the length of the studlead assembly. When the toggle device 25 is operated, the wall 22 is moved to an inner position closer to the wall 24, the final distance between the walls is only slightly greater than the length of the stud-lead assembly.

Specifically, the fixture 2I includes a pair of guide rods for slidably supporting the wall 22. The wall 22 is connected to the toggle device 25 by a rod I6 which is pivotally connected through an L-shaped bracket I7 to a handle lb. The handle is also pivotally connected to a pair of second links I9 pivotally mounted on a stationary block 24).

Positioned in the leftand right-hand walls 22 and 24 are plate magnets 26 and 2'7, respectively, which establish horizontal magnetic lines of force. As shown in the Figure, the left-hand magnet 26 has a north magnet pole facinginto the space between the walls 22 and 24, and the right-hand magnet 27 has a south magnetic pole facing into the space;

Faramagnetic assemblies positioned between the-magnets 26 and 27 are aligned along the magnetic lines of force 'and are randomly attracted toward either magnet so that the free end of one of the leads I2 of each assembly is attracted toward and into engagement with the inner face of either the wall 22 or When a mass of stud-lead assemblies or articles is deposited into the magnetic bin 21, some of the articles near the bottom of the bin may drop out of the field and be suspended by one lead from either the magnet 26 in wall 22 or the magnet 27 in wall 24. In order to reposition these articles back into the magnetic field, a hinged recovery or flipper plate 30 is provided on each wall 22 and 24 (see the FIGURE). Each of the recovery plates 30 extends the length of the wall 22 or 24 along the inside of the bin 21 and is pivoted about an axis spaced above the bottom of the bin. These plates 30 may be manually pivoted to move articles clinging against either wall back into the horizontal magnetic field.

It is to be understood that the above-described arrangements and sequence of steps as described in referred US. Pat. No. 3,480,l65 are simply illustrative of the application of the principles of this invention. Numerous other arrangements may be readily devised by those skilled in the art which will embody the principles of the invention and fall within the spirit and scope thereof.

We claim:

I. A method for aligning, between a pair of spaced wall members, a mass of elongated articles having enlarged central portions with paramagnetic lead wires extending colinearly from each end thereof, and said articles having lengths which are substantially less than the space between said walls which comprises;

impressing a unidirectional magnetic field having parallel lines of force between said pair of walls;

placing a mass of said articles between said walls to randomly attract said articles to each of said spaced walls; and

moving said walls together to engage and interleave said articles held to said opposing walls until said central portions of each of said pluralities of articles are substantially aligned in lateral relationship to each other.

2. A method of aligning a mass of elongated paramagnetic articles between a pair of spaced, movable walls having pivotally supported flipper plates which comprises:

applying a magnetic field between said walls to establish horizontal, parallel lines of force;

placing a mass of said articles between said walls to randomly attract certain of said articles to each of said walls so that the articles horizontally align themselves along said lines of force and to randomly attract the remainder of said articles to each of said walls so that said articles are held against said walls in positions transverse to said lines of force and in overlapping relation to said flipper plates;

pivoting said flipper plates toward each other to move said remaining articles into horizontal alignment with said lines of force; and then imparting relative movement to said walls to interleave the horizontally held articles.

3. A device for suspending a mass of elongated paramagnetic articles in substantially horizontal parallel relation to each other, which comprises:

a pair of spaced upstanding walls;

magnetic plates positioned within the walls for establishing a magnetic field between the walls and having horizontal lines of force for suspending a mass of elongated paramagnetic articles in substantially horizontal parallel relation to each other and with certain of said articles held transversely against said walls and depending therefrom; and

a movable flipper plate pivotally mounted along the bottom of each wall for moving articles held against the wall transverse to said lines of force into the magnetic field to suspend all of the articles along the lines of force.

4. In a device for holding and interleaving a mass of elongated paramagnetic articles having a center body with a pair of leads colinearly extending from each end thereof, in spaced'parallel relationship,

a first upstanding magnetic wall,

a second upstanding magnetic wall spaced from, and parallel to, said first wall for establishing a magnetic field therebetween and having horizontal lines of force,

a pair of guide rods mounting the first magnetic wall for movement toward the second wall,

a recovery plate pivotally mounted along the bottom of each one of said walls and movable toward the other wall for moving article held against the plate into the magnetic field to suspend the articles along the lines of force, and

means for moving the one of said walls along said guide rods toward the other of said walls to interleave and substantially align said articles.

5. A method of aligning and interleaving a mass of elongated articles having paramagnetic ends, comprising:

establishing a magnetic field with parallel longitudinal lines of force wherein said lines of force are substantially longer than the elongated articles;

placing the mass of elongated articles into said magnetic field to position some of the articles along said lines of force while others of the articles have ends depending away from said magnetic field; applying an upward force below said depending ends to lift said depending ends into said magnetic field to position the articles along said lines of force; and

reducing the lengths of said magnetic lines of force to interleave the articles positioned along said lines of force.

6. In an apparatus for interleaving in parallel spaced relationship a mass of articles having a pair of colinear paramagnetic ends extending from a center body portion thereof;

a pair of guideway bars;

a stationary magnetic wall securely attached to sections of said guideway bars;

a moveable magnetic wall in spaced, parallel relationship to said stationary wall and mounted on said guideway bars for movement toward and away from said stationary wall;

means for establishing a magnetic field having horizontal parallel lines of forces extending between said walls for holding the mass of articles in random relationship with certain of the articles having one end thereof depending away from said lines of force;

means pivotally attached to lower portions of said stationary magnetic wall and said moveable magnetic wall for engaging the depending ends of the articles and moving the ends into said magnetic field wherein the ends are held along said horizontal parallel lines of force;

a linkage having one end attached to said moveable wall;

and

pulling means mounted on said stationary wall and pivotally attached to other end of said linkage for pulling said linkage and said moveable magnetic wall toward said stationary magnetic wall to increase the intensity of said lines of force and interleave the mass of articles in parallel spaced relationship. 

1. A method for aligning, between a pair of spaced wall members, a mass of elongated articles having enlarged central portions with paramagnetic lead wires extending colinearly from each end thereof, and said articles having lengths which are substantially less than the space between said walls which comprises; impressing a unidirectional magnetic field having parallel lines of force between said pair of walls; placing a mass of said articles between said walls to randomly attract said articles to each of said spaced walls; and moving said walls together to engage and interleave said articles held to said opposing walls until said central portions of each of said pluralities of articles are substantially aligned in lateral relationship to each other.
 2. A method of aligning a mass of elongated paramagnetic articles between a pair of spaced, movable walls having pivotally supported flipper plates which comprises: applying a magnetic field between said walls to establish horizontal, parallel lines of force; placing a mass of said articles between said walls to randomly attract certain of said articles to each of said walls so that the articles horizontally align themselves along said lines of force and to randomly attract the remainder of said articles to each of said walls so that said articles are held against said walls in positions transverse to said lines of force and in overlapping relation to said flipper plates; pivoting said flipper plates toward each other to move said remaining articles into horizontal alignment with said lines of force; and then imparting relative movement to said walls to interleave the horiZontally held articles.
 3. A device for suspending a mass of elongated paramagnetic articles in substantially horizontal parallel relation to each other, which comprises: a pair of spaced upstanding walls; magnetic plates positioned within the walls for establishing a magnetic field between the walls and having horizontal lines of force for suspending a mass of elongated paramagnetic articles in substantially horizontal parallel relation to each other and with certain of said articles held transversely against said walls and depending therefrom; and a movable flipper plate pivotally mounted along the bottom of each wall for moving articles held against the wall transverse to said lines of force into the magnetic field to suspend all of the articles along the lines of force.
 4. In a device for holding and interleaving a mass of elongated paramagnetic articles having a center body with a pair of leads colinearly extending from each end thereof, in spaced parallel relationship, a first upstanding magnetic wall, a second upstanding magnetic wall spaced from, and parallel to, said first wall for establishing a magnetic field therebetween and having horizontal lines of force, a pair of guide rods mounting the first magnetic wall for movement toward the second wall, a recovery plate pivotally mounted along the bottom of each one of said walls and movable toward the other wall for moving article held against the plate into the magnetic field to suspend the articles along the lines of force, and means for moving the one of said walls along said guide rods toward the other of said walls to interleave and substantially align said articles.
 5. A method of aligning and interleaving a mass of elongated articles having paramagnetic ends, comprising: establishing a magnetic field with parallel longitudinal lines of force wherein said lines of force are substantially longer than the elongated articles; placing the mass of elongated articles into said magnetic field to position some of the articles along said lines of force while others of the articles have ends depending away from said magnetic field; applying an upward force below said depending ends to lift said depending ends into said magnetic field to position the articles along said lines of force; and reducing the lengths of said magnetic lines of force to interleave the articles positioned along said lines of force.
 6. In an apparatus for interleaving in parallel spaced relationship a mass of articles having a pair of colinear paramagnetic ends extending from a center body portion thereof; a pair of guideway bars; a stationary magnetic wall securely attached to sections of said guideway bars; a moveable magnetic wall in spaced, parallel relationship to said stationary wall and mounted on said guideway bars for movement toward and away from said stationary wall; means for establishing a magnetic field having horizontal parallel lines of forces extending between said walls for holding the mass of articles in random relationship with certain of the articles having one end thereof depending away from said lines of force; means pivotally attached to lower portions of said stationary magnetic wall and said moveable magnetic wall for engaging the depending ends of the articles and moving the ends into said magnetic field wherein the ends are held along said horizontal parallel lines of force; a linkage having one end attached to said moveable wall; and pulling means mounted on said stationary wall and pivotally attached to other end of said linkage for pulling said linkage and said moveable magnetic wall toward said stationary magnetic wall to increase the intensity of said lines of force and interleave the mass of articles in parallel spaced relationship. 